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Our bunny has sores on her chest...help!

22 10:39:19

Question
Our bunny, Bun-Bun, developed lesions on her chest in February.  During the past 9 months she has had anywhere from zero to six lesions at a time.  They look like ringworm but she has tested negative on two different occasions including a biopsy which was done on three of the lesions.

Although two different ringworm tests came back negative
the vet decided to put Bun-Bun on ringworm medication for 5 weeks so Bun-Bun is receiving 1ml of Griseofulvin twice a day. She isn't itching as much as before and there don't appear to be any new lesions but the vet has said if she has ringworm the itching should have stopped by now since she just finished week 4 of the medication. There haven't been any changes in her play & cuddle routine.

Bun-Bun is a healthy eater and her salad favs are parsley, cilantro, rappini and kale plus carrots & bananas for treats and she loves her pellets. She is an indoor bunny and we don't cage her but she is in a fairly contained space in our home.

We switched to a hypo-allergenic laundry detergent because our vet mentioned that one of her previous bun patients had been allergic to fabric softener. Since we had been using both scented detergent and fabric softener I asked if we should switch to a hypo-allergenic detergent and the vet said it was worth trying so I am using it to wash Bun-Bun's blankets as well as all of our clothes. Since our
bunny likes to climb all over us, and because she likes for us to pick her up once a day for a quick hug, it made sense to eliminate fabric softener and scented detergent completely from her environment. We have spent $800+ in vet bills since February trying to determine what is causing the lesions so at this point we are willing to try anything.

The vet had us give our bun Metacam which we did on and off during the summer. It helped with the inflammation and the swelling but only for a short period of time. She had also been on Baytril twice for sneezing but switching her hay to Orchard has eliminated the sneezing altogether.

The vet said her only other thought is that Bun-Bun is allergic to something and she said it could be Bun-Bun's plastic/rubber litter box although our bunny doesn't spend a lot of time in her box so I don't think it is the problem.  

Our bun will be 4 in December and we've had her for 21 months. Her weight is normal and only fluctuates an ounce here and there. Her teeth are perfect and the vet hasn't been able to detect any other problems.

Do you have any suggestions for us?  Thanks you!

Answer
Dear Lisa,

If the sores are only on her chest, this does surely suggest that some kind of contact allergy is contributing to the problem.  Mites do not usually produce lesions only on the chest, but rabbits always find ways to puzzle us with new, weird medical conditions.  So I'd ask the vet about trying a dose of Revolution (selamectin) to see if this has any effect.  It's possible that she's harboring mites that are causing the sores.  Please see:

www.bio.miami.edu/hare/furloss.html

Sebaceous adenitis is another possibility.  Although this is more common in certain breeds of dogs (poodles), we have seen a few cases in rabbits.

If your vet can't find anything wrong, then I wonder if it might be worthwhile to take a small biopsy of an affected area to see if a histopathology lab can find any clues as to what's causing this.  If it's an autoimmune response, or sebaceous adenitis, then corticosteroids might help--though this is a last resort option.

I hope this helps with a few ideas.  Please let me know how it goes, if you have time.

Dana